Bar-Z Blog

Bar-Z Mobile Development has long been in the business of creating innovative mobile solutions for civic organizations of all stripes. Our apps focus on connecting, communicating, engaging, inspiring and generally enabling organizations to reach their goals using mobile technology. In addition to the recent launch of our new zCivic division, we are excited to expand our product and service...

Mobile App Strategy: Resource Planning
Defining a clear strategy is critical to ensuring a successful mobile project. Once you’ve defined your target users and determined the goals of your app, it’s time to turn to resource planning. Regardless of whether you build an app internally or hire an app development company, your organization will need to provide different types of resources to get the...

Mobile App Strategy: Determine App Goals
In today’s world, having a mobile app to reach your audience and support your organization’s mission is almost a business imperative. Developing the app software itself though, is just one piece of the overall project. What are you really looking to achieve with your mobile app? Defining your app goals and objectives will help steer the decisions you make...

Mobile App Strategy: Defining Your Target Audience
So you’ve got your funding and approval for developing a new mobile app, fantastic! Perhaps you’re still working on getting final approval to start your app project; that’s an even better time to start planning your app strategy. Developing a comprehensive app strategy is a critical step in building a successful mobile app that...

Introducing zCivic
zCivic is your new trusted partner for mobile solutions. Drawing on years of experience developing mobile solutions for cities and town, chambers of commerce, main streets and tourism organizations of all stripes, we’ve distilled our offering to focus specifically on the unique challenges and needs of your organization. While our solutions are still backed by the powerful Bar-Z...

App Marketing: Think Inside The Car (or Bus)
When it comes to marketing your app, nothing should be off the table. The rules are being written and rewritten constantly. Just because you're end goal is a 'digital' one (a new install) doesn't mean that you have to think only in digital terms. We live in an analog world. Where are your ideal users? What are they doing? When is the best time to get...

Engaging Your App Audience through the Holidays
The winter holidays are a great opportunity to update your app with new content, graphics and features to keep your audience engaged. Keeping your app content fresh is crucial to staying relevant to users and drawing them back into the app in the future. There are multiple ways to use your app to engage your audience this winter.Events - Holiday...

App Store Optimization: What You Need To Know
When marketing an app, the information that you provide for your app listing on the Apple App Store and Google Play will help form users’ first impressions. There are also a couple elements of the listing that are crucial for app store optimization and determining your app placement in search results. First, there is the app description. Second, there...

One of the easiest and most effective ways to reach out to your mobile app users is through push notifications. Push notifications are messages that users have the ability to opt-in or opt-out of when downloading your app. This feature is great because it often times can remind users to engage with your app again after a lull in app usage.Here are a couple of helpful tips to consider when it...

SXSW Interactive Provides Valuable Lessons To Civic Organizations & Publishers
SXSW Interactive has officially wrapped up just a few miles from the Bar-Z office. The yearly tech conference, currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, always brings new technology and discussion how a variety of industries should adapt to technological change. In past years, there has always been a stand out...